Now that “Drood” has closed, and I finally can catch a breath between the student group meetings, the class periods, and the three massive biology projects that all want to smear me into oblivion, I’d like to take the time for a post-mortem post.
I am disappointed by the quality of this blog. When I first began this process I had envisioned that my blog would be a fully developed dissertation on all things Durdles; a series of interlinked web pages that could paint a reasonably accurate picture of how I interpreted the character. I even made a sort of joke attempt at the senior-project-blog during the rehearsal process for “Lady Windermere’s Fan” in 2015 as a tool for practicing. Instead, I produced only a handful of posts, with almost no part of the blog reflecting character research or my process.
Though I am not fond of making excuses I do feel that some attempt at explanation is warranted. I am not a fan of the personal blog. I don’t read them, I don’t follow them religiously, and I generally find that they encourage a self-aggrandizing worship of one’s own personality in an echo chamber where the blogger plays the role of a god and all criticism is hate mail, regardless of validity. It’s a very alien format to me, especially given the informality of it all. I think that I would have felt tremendously more confident in writing a single coherent essay, or giving a presentation or even keeping a private journal to be turned in and evaluated after closing. To me these options seem more complete and comprehensive. While I understand that the selling point of a blog like this is that it allows the instantaneous documentation of one’s efforts and progress, the public component (that is, the uploading of each post for all to see) is one that I found surprisingly averse. At many points throughout the rehearsal process and even the run itself, I found myself debating whether or not I should post something, often trying to convince myself that a post was ‘good’ enough or ‘of substance’.
Personally, I find the most success in the notes that I pencil into each script I am given. This technique keeps all of the relevant knowledge in one place where it is instantly accessible whenever I open my book. I did feel that I benefited from the journal-aspect of the blog, and in the future I may attempt to journal my process again, though this time on my own terms. Mostly I found it helpful in forcing me to confess which areas I felt I was deficient in, that way I could then hold myself responsible for correcting those issues.
Below I have included several scans from my script, complete with the notes that I made along the way. The hand-drawn illustrations between the lines are my own, and I found them useful in defining the specific stylistic gesturing appropriate for the piece. Additionally, I will be posting two more posts in the research section of my blog, these being components that I could never find the time to write about in full during the production.
